Five Times Lily Evans Said NoAnd One Time James Said Yes
by camweasley
Summary: From 1st to 7th Year, 5 memorable times Lily Evans said no. A Six-part collection of drabbles. Jily.
1. 1st Year

**AN: So basically, I had a few ideas running around my head, but none of them were long enough for a full story so I've decided to combine them into one 6 chapter set of what are pretty much drabbles. They're all going to be short, some shorter than others, so I'm hoping to update once every 1-3 days (I'm really busy right now with sorority stuff so we'll see how that goes). And I _know_ there are a ton of "[#] times [something happened] and 1 time [something else happened] stories, but I just wanted to test out my own spin on it. Oh, and I don't own any of Harry Potter or anything related to it. **

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1.

"Psst, Evans. Hey! Evans!" James whispered at the red-haired girl in front of him.

He had been trying for the past five minutes to get her attention, but to no avail.

Professor Binns was droning on in the front of the class, talking about some revolution or another, so he didn't notice when James began tossing tiny balls of paper at her back in an attempt to make her turn around.

He had just enlisted Sirius's help when she whipped her head around, her eyes set in an angry glare and hissed, "What do you want?"

"I've got a question," James replied, leaning forward in his seat a little.

Her eyes narrowed even more and James was struck, not for the first time in his five months of knowing her, that she possessed almost impossibly green eyes. They were quite strange, creepy almost... yet somehow, not...

"Potter?" she snapped her fingers in front of his face. "Can you hurry up? I'm trying not to miss this lecture so I really don't have time to watch you sitting here doing nothing."

"Right. Yeah. I did have a question for you-"

"Before you go any further, I warn you: if you're about to ask me another stupid question like 'Why is your hair red' like you did last week, I swear I will hex you."

James scoffed. "You don't know any hexes."

"I'm a fast learner," she replied.

James, finding himself at a loss regarding how to respond to that, simply ignored her comment and said, "Anyway, I needed to borrow a quill from you."

"Why not ask one of your mates? I'm sure they have extras."

"Well I could ask them, but I already know _them_ pretty well, and as fellow Gryffindors, don't you think we should be making an effort to get to know each other?"

"And you think the middle of a lecture is the perfect time for House bonding?"

"I think the middle of a boring lecture is, yeah."

Lily rolled her eyes.

"Well I happen to not have a spare, so I've nothing for you," she said.

She turned back in her seat, but only ten seconds later, she had twisted around to face James again. "And you know, even if I had one, I wouldn't give it to you."

"Why not?" James asked, the offense he felt clear on his face.

Smirking ever so slightly, Lily leaned in and whispered, "Because you've got a quill tucked right behind your ear."


	2. 3rd Year

"Are you actually gonna go through with it this time or are you going to chicken out again?" Sirius drawled, leaning against a banister as his best mate paced back and forth.

"I'm doing it today, I swear," James said, a slightly manic glint in his eye.

"Good, because watching you walk up to her, turn, and walk away at least once a day this past month has just gotten painful," Peter said.

"You'll be fine as long as you quit overthinking it," Remus added.

"Yeah," James nodded, straightening to his full height and tousling his hair with one hand. "I reckon I will be."

He took a final breath and pushed open the doors to the Great Hall.

With his three best friends trailing behind him, James strode into the Hall, in which dinner was currently being served, and walked straight to the Gryffindor table where Lily Evans was sitting, writing a letter.

"So, Evans," he began with all the bravado he could muster.

Then she turned around to face him, and he found himself completely tongue-tied. His entire speech having fled from his mind, James managed to choke out, "You, me, Hogsmeade. Yes?" before deciding it was best if he stopped talking.

Lily narrowed her eyes-an expression of hers he was growing all too familiar with.

"Is that really how you ask girls out?" she asked. "No wonder you didn't have a date to the first Hogsmeade trip."

"I didn't want to take anyone last time. You should consider yourself special Evans."

There are times when a person knows, as the words are coming out of their mouth, that they have just said precisely the wrong thing.

This was one of those times.

Remus's sharp intake of breath that James heard behind him was confirmation of that.

"I should consider myself _special_ because the Great James Potter has deigned to ask me on a date? I feel special all on my own, thanks."

James felt his face reddening as his hand immediately flew up to his hair.

"Wait, wait, no, I meant-I mean..." he stuttered before trailing off.

"Do you have anything else to say, _my liege_?" Lily snapped.

"Er, no."

"Good." And with that, Lily turned back to her letter and her dinner.

James hurried away and could have sworn he heard her mutter "tosser" under her breath.

When he returned to his friends who were once again outside the Great Hall, he found Remus and Peter both averting their eyes and shifting back and forth when they saw him, while Sirius seemed to be having trouble stifling his laughter.

"I reckon you heard, then," James said.

Remus nodded, his lips pressed tightly together.

"That bad?" he asked.

"You could write a book," Sirius said, chuckling heartily. "'How to Make a Bird Hate You in Nine Syllables or Fewer, by James Potter."

* * *

Lily was sitting by the fire in the Common Room, trying and failing to revise for Transfiguration. Her mind kept drifting to James' and her conversation that evening. She wasn't really sure if he had been serious about Hogsmeade at all, or if it had been some elaborate attempt to pick on her. Part of her wanted to believe he actually meant it, as it would explain why it seemed he had been stalking her for days, but on the other hand, he had been so rude it hardly seemed fathomable that he actually liked her enough to want to take her out. And would she even want to go if he did?

She was still pondering when James crept into the Common Room an hour past curfew. She listened to his footsteps and was surprised when they became louder rather than softer.

Clearly, he was not going up to his dorm.

Lily chanced a glance behind her and saw that James was standing a mere meter away from her chair.

"Come to apologize?" she asked sardonically.

There was a brief stretch of time before he replied, "Yes."

Lily found she had no response to that as James carefully made his way to the chair next to hers.

Still unsure as to whether he was being sincere or setting up for a prank, Lily moved to the side of her seat that was further away from him-an action that was not missed by James judging by his exasperated sigh.

"Listen Evans, earlier today...that was not...good."

Lily snorted.

"No you have to understand," he continued, "It didn't-I wasn't supposed to say that. I didn't mean it like that and I really am sorry it came out that way."

James was clearly done talking, which left Lily with two options: one, she could stay mad and use some of the choice words for him she had come up with after dinner, or two, she could forgive him and move on.

Lily was inclined to choose option one, but after studying James's face for a moment, she saw that he looked so contrite, so uncharacteristically embarrassed, that she simply didn't have the heart to continue the fight.

"It's fine," she said after careful deliberation. "Everyone says stupid things sometimes I suppose."

She gave him a thin smile and turned back to her homework, assuming he would leave now that he'd gotten the apology he wanted.

Instead, however, he broke the short silence that had fallen between them by saying, "The question is still there, though."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, erm, well, if-if you aren't still too hacked off at me, maybe the two of us could go to Hogsmeade? We could bring our mates along too, if you'd prefer that," he added quickly.

James was fidgeting in his seat and seemed to have gone completely red. He was eyeing Lily with an odd mix of trepidation and hope.

Oh.

He was actually asking her on a date.

Lily felt herself turn what was most likely an even more vibrant shade of red than what James was sporting, and suddenly it was her turn to stutter.

"Look, I-I really appreciate...that...but I-er-I wasn't planning on going to Hogsmeade this time."

"You weren't?" he asked, looking slightly downtrodden.

"No. I've got too much homework," she lied.

The truth was that she didn't feel quite comfortable with going on a date yet. It didn't matter that it was Potter, it could have been anybody and the answer would have still been the same. She wanted to tell him that, but for some reason, she didn't.

"Sorry," she smiled weakly at him and watched as he mimicked her actions.

"It's no matter," he said, rising from the couch. "Maybe some other time or something?"

"Or something," Lily said quietly.

There was a short, mildly awkward pause as James continued to stand and Lily continued to sit, until he finally gave her a small wave, said, "Night, Evans," and hurried up the staircase.

Lily slumped back into her chair, a little stunned by what had just happened.

James Potter, with whom she was barely acquaintances with, had just asked her out and wasn't trying to make a joke of it, when he was always the first to make a joke out of everything.

Why?

Part of her wanted to consider the possibilities, but a much larger part of her wanted to write it off as some odd whim of his and forget about it.

She succeeded in writing it off, but she never did quite forget.


	3. 5th Year

AN: You might recognize a line in this one; that is intentional. And, just like the rest of Harry Potter, it does not belong to me.

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3.

"Potter! You stop that right now!"

Lily stormed down the corridor, her hair blowing behind her from the speed with which she was walking.

James turned his head, arm still outstretched with his wand pointing directly in Sirius's face.

"What on Earth do you think you're doing?" she yelled.

"Evans!" James grinned and ran his free hand through his hair. "Care to join us?"

"Absolutely not! What is this?"

She noticed for the first time that the 4th Year Gryffindor boys were in a crowd around them.

"Just showing a couple of the younger lads how to properly duel," he replied nonchalantly, dropping his wand arm.

"Last time I checked, you're not the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor."

"A shame, that." James shook his head in mock-disappointment. "I could do so much better than that Cressen bloke we have now."

Lily's eyes narrowed, as they were wont to do. "_Professor_ Cressen is doing a very respectable job preparing us for our O.W.L.s. Now all of you, stop this nonsense before someone gets hurt."

None of the boys moved and it was clear to Lily that they were all waiting on James's instructions.

Finally he sighed and said, "All right you lot, clear off."

She heard him whisper to one of the boys that they would pick back up later that night, but she chose to ignore it.

When Lily had finished watching all of the younger boys leave with Sirius, she whirled back on James.

"You know, I'm a prefect now. I could get you in trouble for this if I wanted," she said.

"But you won't," James shrugged.

"If you do it again, I will. But this time I'll let you off with a warning."

"A warning? You're going soft."

Lily pursed her lips and crossed her arms as if she was thinking.

"Or perhaps I'll change my mind and just refer you to McGonagall now..."

"Ah, don't make me hex you Evans."

Lily smirked. "Something tells me that's an empty threat."

James leaned in slightly. "Care to find out?"

"That depends on if you're interested in learning firsthand what happens to people who try to hex me."

"A bit cocky today are we?"

"I think it's good to walk a day in the shoes of those you hate sometimes. Understand their psyche. Feel what it's like to be incessantly arrogant and annoying, in this case."

It was James's turn to smirk. "You don't hate me Evans. Not in the least."

"And what gives you that idea?" she asked.

James had no answer, but he leaned over just a bit more so that he and Lily were closer to eye level. He ran a hand through his hair again as he said, "So what d'you say, Evans? You. Me. Hogsmeade. Say...this weekend?"

That finally got a laugh out of Lily.

"Not on your life, Potter!" She picked up her bag and was about to walk away when she added, "And I see you've reverted back to the eloquence of your Third Year Hogsmeade invitations."

"Well," James nearly blushed, "nothing else has been working."

"Alas! The life of James Potter is full of sorrow and strife."

And with that, she left him in the corridor.

When she was just about to turn the corner, James called out, "You can't resist my obvious charms forever!"

"Watch me!" she replied.


	4. 5th Year II

AN: This is waaayyy later than I meant to have this done by. Oh well. Here's Chapter 4! I own none of this!

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4.

_"I wouldn't go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid...you're as bad as he is...you make me sick..."_

Her words from an hour ago were still running on an endless loop through his head.

James paced his dormitory room, waiting for the dittany he put on his cheek to finish fully healing the damage done by Snape's hex.

Lily was wrong, plain and simple; there was no way he was just as bad as Snape-it wasn't possible. And yet, she had said it, and James knew Lily to be a person who never said something she didn't mean, so that led him to a much worse train of thought: did Lily honestly think he was that awful of a person that she could liken him to a Death Eater-in-training without blinking an eye? And then did that mean he had really been deluding himself for months when he thought they were finally forging a friendship of sorts? Did he honestly have no chance with her? For the first time in almost three years, it struck him that Lily Evans might really never go out with him.

And maybe it was his fault.

James kicked his bedpost, which did nothing except make his toe throb.

He knew he had gone too far, asking her out while jinxing her friend, but he had done it anyway and now she was furious and there might not be a way to fix it and he had no one to blame but himself.

_"I wouldn't go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid...you're as bad as he is...you make me sick..."_

Her words from four hours ago were still racing across her mind, the afternoon replaying itself over and over again.

Lily sat in the kitchen clutching the butterbeer a house elf had given her when she had arrived.

She had been too harsh and she finally knew it. James wasn't nearly as bad as Severus-that had been made abundantly clear. Yet she couldn't find it in herself to stop being angry at James. Just when she'd started thinking she might give him a chance, he went and pulled a stupid stunt like this and reminded her of all the reasons why she always turned him down. Who did he think he was, strutting about the castle and smirking and never combing his hair and hexing people for the fun of it?

But then who was she to be angry when she had needed to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing when Severus had been hoisted into the air? And maybe James hadn't been lying those times he said Severus had hexed him first; today she'd seen that he was definitely capable of that.

She wasn't quite sure where she was going with those thoughts, when the door to the kitchen creaked open.

Lily jumped off the table she had been sitting on and nearly dropped her butterbeer in the process.

"Evans? Didn't expect to see you here," the newcomer said.

She recognized that voice. Of course he would wind up down here.

"I was going to say the same thing to you, Potter," she said.

James walked fully into the room and shut the door behind him. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"Well you did."

There was a long and awkward silence in which neither one knew what to say so Lily continued to sip on her drink while James struggled to not mess with his hair.

"What are you doing down here?" he asked finally.

"What are _you_ doing here?" she retorted.

"Avoiding my mates actually."

"We're both here for the same reason, then."

"You're avoiding your mates?" James asked.

"And a couple other people." The look she gave him was so pointed he would have had to have been blind to misinterpret it.

"So you're still mad at me."

"I'm not sure," Lily replied honestly.

"Look," James took a seat on the table Lily had previously been on, "I'm really sorry about what Snape-"

"What Snape did has nothing to do with you. If you want to apologize, do it for your own actions or don't do it at all," Lily snapped.

James was taken aback, but only for a moment. She was right, as usual. If he wanted to make anything better between the two of them, he had to take responsibility for his own part in everything.

"Right," he said at length. "I did some things I really shouldn't have, and said some things that were far out of line."

It was vague, Lily thought, and it was barely enough, but it _was_ enough. For now, at least.

"We all said things that were out of line," she said. "And I suppose it would be rather hypocritical of me to stay mad at you when I could have handled things better as well."

"So are we all right now?" James asked hopefully.

"No," Lily shook her head, "but we're better than we were."

James nodded and, sensing that Lily really did want to be alone, hopped off the table and walked to the door.

"See you around, Evans."

"Thanks, Potter."

James walked out, not quite sure why she had thanked him. But she wasn't mad, and that was enough.

For now at least.


	5. 6th Year

AN: I own nothing. Except, y'know, my own original ideas. I own those. And also a lot of cat sweaters.

* * *

Snow drifted delicately in haphazard patterns across the windows of the Gryffindor Tower. Lily watched from the old squishy armchair she had claimed by the fire, her homework and class notes covering her lap and the floor around her.

The sun had already set-not that Lily had seen it at all that day; the sky in the Great Hall had been gray when she went to breakfast and she had been cooped up in the tower studying since then.

Well, trying to study at least.

Grateful for any distraction from her work, Lily lost herself in the intricate patterns the snowflakes were dancing in, unintentionally trying to mimic the patterns with the wand she held in her right hand.

"Coming up with a new form of interpretive dance, Evans?"

Sirius' voice broke Lily out of her reverie. She turned around and saw two of her newest friends looking at her with amused expressions on their faces.

"No," she replied. "I was just watching the snow."

"That's...very interesting," James said.

Sirius crouched down so that he was level with her and stared out the window she indicated, squinting his eyes a bit.

"Huh," he said after a moment, "seems bloody boring to me. But to each his own, I suppose."

Sirius stood back up to his full height and made his way across the room.

"I'll wait for you in the hall, Prongs," he said, climbing through the portrait hole and giving Lily a little salute.

Lily turned back around to see James picking through all of her notes.

"Put those back!" she yelled.

"Why?" James chuckled. "It's not as if you've got some sort of complex organization system here."

Lily frowned. "But I know you, and I know you hate homework and I know that everything you hate has a way of getting ruined or Vanished or-"

"Oh please! When was the last time I Vanished anything just because I didn't like it?"

"Just last week you declared you hated fuzzy socks and all those pairs your mum sent you disappeared."

"But that just turned out to be Sirius doing what he thought was a favor for me."

"Actually it was a favor for all of us. Those things made your legs look ridiculously. It was offensive to everyone's eyes," Lily drawled.

"Ah, now you're just being hurtful because you know I won't retaliate," James grinned.

"Because you're afraid of me hexing you in response?"

"More because there's not a part of you I can think to say something bad about."

Lily looked up at James and met his eyes for the first time in their whole conversation. Even through his glasses, the gold flecks in his eyes were exceptionally prominent in the warm light of the Common Room and stood out amongst the swirls of brown and green. Lily realized that he was looking directly in her eyes as blatantly as she was his.

They stared at each other like that for a few seconds, a charged _something_ between them.

Lily wondered, was it the fire or the intensity of James' gaze that was suddenly making the room feel very warm...

"So, what are you doing homework on a Friday night for anyways?" James asked abruptly, snapping both of them out of the moment.

"Exams are coming up and I want to have time to leisurely pack for Christmas holiday for once," Lily replied.

"But you're smart. You don't have to revise from dusk til dawn to get straight Os."

"For Arithmancy I might. I can't for the life of me figure out why I chose to continue with it."

"I can help you with that," James said. "That is, if you're willing to make a deal with me."

"And what's that?"

"Put down the books for one night and sneak out to Hogsmeade with me and the boys."

"It's almost curfew."

"Yes." James smiled a little.

"And it's not a Hogsmeade weekend."

"Correct." His smile grew.

"And what exactly do you plan to do in Hogsmeade at eleven at night?"  
"Try and convince Rosemerta to serve us firewhisky." James was full on beaming by that point.

"Breaking the rules just makes you so giddy, doesn't it?"

"I may have gotten better this year, but some habits just never go away."

Lily smiled and shook her head.

"As much as I would love to join you in your night of crime, I really do need to study," she said.

"C'mon. One night. That's it."

Lily considered for a moment. Really, she could do all of this work tomorrow or the day after that; what harm could ignoring her homework for one night do? She wanted to sneak out with them, she really did, and that surprised her-but what alarmed her more was the fact that she didn't know if it was because she wanted a drink or because she wanted to spend more time with James.

"Sorry," she said at length, "but it's a no for me."

James' shoulders drooped ever so slightly.

"But maybe I'll take you up on the offer some other time?" she added.

James' smile returned. "I'm holding you to that."

He looked at the clock on the wall and gave her a hasty one-armed hug saying, "Well I better get going. Have a nice night revising."

"And you have a good time breaking out of the castle," Lily said as he strode to the portrait hole. "Try not to get hurt, or worse: caught by McGonagall."

James laughed. "Have you no faith in my skills at all?"

And with that, he was gone and Lily was alone in the Common Room again. Her homework still surrounded her and the snowflakes still floated past the window, but her mind was on very different things.


	6. 7th Year

AN: Here's the final chapter...finally! Thank you everyone who's been following this story. Reviews and follows honestly mean so much. xx

Disclaimer: I stilllll don't own these character, locations, etc.

* * *

6.

"James Potter!" Lily screamed as she stormed into the Great Hall. "What on earth do you think you're doing with those pumpkins?!"

James turned around slowly and took his hands off of the large pumpkin that was floating above the Hufflepuff table.

"Oh I dunno, Lily, I just thought it would be a laugh to gather my mates and practice First-Year levitation charms on some pumpkins the day before Halloween," he drawled.

It took Lily a second to notice that Sirius, Remus and Peter were standing on the other three tables, accompanied by Professor Flitwick and Hagrid-all of whom were doing exactly the same thing as James.

"Oh, right," she said, a blush rising in her cheeks. "Head duties."

"I brought them along," James motioned to the boys, "because I didn't know how long you'd be. Is that alright?"

"Yeah, completely. Sorry, I guess I'm still scarred from the Halloween debacle of '74."

James grinned. "That was one for the ages."

"One of my skirts still smells like pumpkin," Lily chuckled. "Right then, I'll start decorating the windows if no one's doing that yet."

"Actually," James said, just as Lily had begun to walk away, "I could use some help here. I can't seem to get the positioning of these things just right and you're better at these charms than I am."

"I'll help," Lily smirked, "but only because it's a very rare day that James Potter asks for help."

"Tease all you want, but remember who's tutoring you in Arithmancy." James bent down and extended his hand, "C'mon then."

Lily took his hand and climbed onto the table to join him.

It did not go unnoticed by either of them that they were both reluctant to let go once Lily was steady and had adjusted her skirt.

"Well," James said at length, "I was thinking we could fit at least ten more pumpkins above this table and-"

"Absolutely not. Even with the strongest levitation charm, they're going to travel a bit which means they'd be bumping into each other all over the place if we put up ten. And then suppose one falls: unless we want to cover the entire table with a cushioning charm, a misplaced pumpkin might end up landing on someone's head. You really did need my help."

Hours later, once exactly six large pumpkins were floating above each of the House tables, and the windows had been decorated and the ghosts had given everyone a preview of the show they had planned for the next day, James and Lily returned to the Head Boy and Girl office to tally up house points and organize reports so that they wouldn't have to do it the next day.

They managed a solid half hour of work before conversation turned from detention slips to the holiday.

"It's been seven years now and I'm still not used to the way Halloween is done in the Wizarding world," Lily said as she sipped on one of the butterbeers James had managed to sneak up.

"What do you mean?" James asked. He had moved to the small couch in the room and undone his tie ten minutes ago.

"Well this is all very festive, but Muggles are festive in a different way. It's nice to go out and see everyone dressed up as princesses and footballers and witches-"

"Lily, you always dress up like a witch. That comes with the whole deal of being one y'know."

Lily smiled. "I know _that_, but still, there's a difference."

"If you want, we could all dress up. Maybe we can even convince Peter to be a princess," James grinned.

"No, that's quite alright," Lily laughed. "I'm not saying I don't like the way we do it here. I do. And this year should be especially fun."

"Why's that?"

"With tomorrow being Friday and then this being a Hogsmeade weekend, it's almost like we get a two-day celebration isn't it?"

"You know, I'd almost forgotten about Hogsmeade. And the first one of the year at that!"

"Are you going?" Lily asked.

"Naturally. You?"

Lily nodded and looked away, feeling vaguely uncomfortable.

"Great," she said, shaking off the feeling.

"Yeah. We'll both be there. That's brilliant."

James, Lily noticed, wore a look of consternation and, for the first time that year, his hand was running through his hair.

He caught her eye and they gave each other close-lipped smiles before averting their eyes. James began to make puffs of colored smoke with his wand as he stared at the clock, while Lily reorganized all of the papers around her.

"Ah, it's midnight. Happy Halloween!" James said a minute later.

"Happy Halloween," Lily returned, gigging nervously.

They slipped back into silence for a few moments and Lily felt that her heart was beating furiously, though she wasn't quite sure why.

"James." His name slipped unbidden out of her mouth.

He looked up. "Yeah?"

"Do you want to go to Hogsmeade with me?" The question slipped out unbidden as well.

With a huge grin on his face, James jumped off the sofa, pulled Lily out of her chair and wrapped her in a huge hug.

"Merlin, I thought you'd never ask."


End file.
